“Kickbacks must always exceed bribes” has been described as “The First Law of Management” or “The Hidden Truth of Management.” John Peers collected the saying in 1978 for a book published in 1979
 
 
Google Books
4 December 1978, New York magazine, pg. 145, col. 2:
In 1976 John Peers, president of the Logical Machine Corporation, and Gordon Bennett, and advertising consultant, placed an ad in The New Yorker for Peers’s ADAM computer. The ad contained “Peers Law”—“The solution to a problem changes the problem.” Readers were invited to send in their own axioms, himilies, laws, principles, and so forth, and the result was overwhelming. Thousands were received and a large selection of these is to be published in a book (Doubleday).
(...)
The First Law of Management: Kickbacks must always exceed bribes.
   
Google Books
1,001 logical laws, accurate axioms, profound principles, trusty truisms, homey homilies, colorful corollaries, quotable quotes, and rambunctious ruminations for all walks of life
By John Peers, Gordon Bennett and George Booth
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1979
Pg. 73:
The Hidden Truth of Management: Kickbacks must always exceed bribes.
 
BeltwayBlowhards.com
Obama and the $60 Billion Union Healthcare Kickback
Posted by Jim Dandy at 1/15/2010 5:08 PM
Once again, President Barack Obama, the Bankrupter-in-Chief, has proved the old adage:
KICKBACKS MUST ALWAYS EXCEED BRIBES